Road Safety Statistics for 2024: Progress continues amid persistent challenges

In 2024, 19,940 people lost their lives in road crashes across the EU, according to latest statistics released by the European Commission today. This represents a 2% decrease compared to 2023 and marks continued, but slow, progress toward the EU’s Vision Zero goal of halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 and getting close to eliminating them by 2050.

At 45 deaths per million population, the EU continues to have among the safest roads globally. However, behind these statistics are thousands of families and communities affected by tragic and preventable losses.

Notable improvements were recorded in several countries, with examples including Lithuania (-22%), , Latvia (-19%) and Austria (-13%), demonstrating the effectiveness of recent road safety interventions. Concerning increases were observed in a small number of Member States such as Estonia (+17%) and Cyprus (+21%). However, these percentages are based on small absolute numbers. The majority of Member States maintained stable figures or achieved modest improvements.

The overall ranking of countries’ fatality rates has not changed significantly, with the safest roads in Sweden (20 deaths per million inhabitants) and Denmark (24/million), while Romania (78/million) and Bulgaria (74/million) reported the highest fatality rates in 2024. Detailed figures per country are available below.

The figures published today reveal the final numbers of road fatalities for 2024, following the publication of preliminary data in March 2025.

Estimates for the first semester of 2025

Provisional data for the first six months of 2025 shows mixed trends across Member States. While some countries like Greece, Czechia, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia are giving positive signals with declining fatalities, others face renewed challenges. These early indicators underscore that road safety requires constant vigilance and sustained effort. The European Commission will continue to monitor these trends closely and support Member States in addressing emerging concerns.

Excellence in Road Safety Awards

Yesterday, 16 October, the European Commission hosted the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards. These awards recognise the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe.

Over 100 initiatives were nominated for this prestigious accolade, with 15 projects being shortlisted.

The award winners were selected by an independent jury from over 100 nominees, over five award categories: projects addressing driving under the influence and distraction; road safety education projects; projects involving technology for road safety, projects addressing road safety for older people and the urban road safety award, open to municipalities.

The 2025 EU Excellence in Road Safety Award Winners:

Projects addressing driving under the influence or driver distraction 

• FlineBox: For safer driving decisions : Road Safety Authority Ireland and Fline (Ireland & Belgium)

Road Safety Education Projects 

• Road safety awareness for school children: Volvo Car España (Spain)

Projects addressing the road safety of older people  

• Lifelong safe and active mobility: Madlencnik Mobility – Easy Drivers Radfahrschule (Austria)

Projects focusing on technology for road safety 

• Lanternn: AI & data fusion for road safety: Valerann, Transport Infrastructure Ireland & Roughan & O’Donovan (Spain & Ireland)

Urban road safety 

• Safer surroundings for secondary schools: Métropole de Lyon (France)

People’s choice award

• 30 Marathons for 30km/h: The NTUA Road Safety Observatory (Greece)

Read more about this year’s winners here.

Background

In 2018, the EU set itself a 50% reduction target for road deaths – and, for the first time, also serious injuries – by 2030. This was set out in the European Commission’s Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety and EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030, which also laid out road safety plans aiming to reach zero road deaths by 2050 (‘Vision Zero’). As the Court of Auditors recently pointed out, unless significant efforts are made, targets will not be achieved.

Recent EU-level initiatives tackling road safety, include updated requirements for driving licences and better cross-border enforcement of road traffic rules and a proposal to enhance the roadworthiness of vehicles.

Road safety has also been a core element of recent EU mobility policy initiatives, including the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the new TEN-T Regulation and the Urban Mobility Framework and the European Declaration on Cycling.

Also yesterday, 16 October, marked the conclusion of the second edition of the EU-funded Road Safety Exchange project. This successful project has connected road safety experts from 19 European countries to help them tackle specific road safety challenges and identify European best practices.  An event in Brussels showcased how participation in this project has led to many Member States implementing practical solutions to save lives on their roads, from innovative road design in Lithuania to automated traffic fine processing centres in Romania, and from road safety education in Poland to 30 km/h urban speed limits in Greece. A third edition of the project, funded under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), will get underway by the end of 2025, involving even more authorities learning from each other to save lives.

More information: European Commission